Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The bottomless pit of awkwardness

And here we are again (remember this the next time you pick up the phone to order a Domino's pizza):

The Thomas More Law Center just filed an amicus brief with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Louisiana same-sex marriage case. The brief is purportedly on behalf of the National Coalition of Black Pastors and Christian Leaders, which the brief curiously claims represents "the interests of over 25,000 Ministries/Churches that include over 3 million laity in the United States," despite seeming to have no separate Internet presence or website. [...]

Among the ridiculous claims the Thomas More Law Center makes are that same-sex marriage is a slippery slope to men marrying animals – the infamous man-dog marriages the religious right always claims will happen without one single instance of it ever having happened.

"If 'marriage' means fulfilling one’s personal choices regarding intimacy," the brief states, "it is difficult to see how States could regulate marriage on any basis. If personal autonomy is the essence of marriage, then not only gender, but also number, familial relationship, and even species are insupportable limits on that principle and they all will fall. This is not just a slippery slope on which the Appellants wish to set us, it is a bottomless pit into which they desire to throw us."

Nothstine is a writer, editor, political junkie, and renegade professor. Contact him here.

*Why p3?

"A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance, and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others." -Thomas Jefferson (1826)